A judge is set to sentence Nicholas Roske on Friday for attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the weeks leading up to the high court’s landmark Dobbs decision.

The Department of Justice has asked for 30 years in prison, while Roske’s attorneys have asked for eight years.

In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said Roske showed up at Kavanaugh’s house on June 8, 2022, armed with a pistol, ammunition, a knife, a crowbar and tactical gear, intending to kill the conservative justice and three other justices.

The potential impact of Roske’s conduct was ‘immeasurable and staggering,’ prosecutors said.

‘By targeting and planning to kill ‘at least one,’ but ‘shooting for 3’ justices of the Supreme Court, the defendant sought single-handedly and irrevocably to alter an entire branch of the United States government through violence,’ they wrote.

Roske’s attorneys argued in their own memorandum that three decades in prison, which included terrorism and other enhancements, did not fit the crime.

Roske pleaded guilty in April to one count of attempting to murder a Supreme Court justice, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The defense attorneys noted how Roske called 911 soon after arriving at Kavanaugh’s house and ‘self-reported her plans, intentions, and actions’ instead of moving forward with attacking Kavanaugh.

Roske’s lawyers also said Roske suffered severe depression and that their client’s ominous online searches about mass shootings and various justices, which the DOJ factored into its sentencing recommendation, were not indicative of an intent to murder multiple justices.

‘As any internet user knows, Googling and doom-scrolling, even in dark corners of the internet, does not equate to criminal intent,’ the defense attorneys wrote. ‘A user’s internet content is voluminous, intensely personal, and can easily be taken out of context.’

Two weeks prior to the sentencing hearing, Roske’s attorneys also notified the court that while their client’s name had not formally changed, Roske wanted to begin going by the name ‘Sophie’ and female pronouns. 

‘Out of respect for Ms. Roske, the balance of this pleading and counsel’s in-court argument will refer to her as Sophie and use female pronouns,’ the footnote stated.

Roske’s sentencing comes at a time when judges have repeatedly raised alarms about threats they have received from ideologically-driven suspects across the political spectrum.

The attempted assassination in 2022 occurred just two weeks before the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade, an expected decision that had drawn protesters to the Supreme Court building and conservative justices’ houses for weeks leading up to it.

Last year, an Alaska man named Panos Anastasiou was indicted on charges of sending hundreds of messages to Supreme Court justices that included threats to murder them. 

Anastasiou stands accused of making specific threats toward six justices of shooting, strangling, ‘lynching’ and beheading them.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., revealed to Fox News Digital that he is one of three Republicans in Congress who was surveilled by the Biden administration’s ‘Quiet Skies’ program, a program that has been shut down due to overreach concerns.

Earlier this week, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Rand Paul, R-Ky., convened a hearing examining alleged Biden administration abuse of the program, which was terminated by DHS in June, and revealed that three current Republican members of Congress were surveilled or monitored either as a sitting member or while seeking elected office.

GOP Rep. Abe Hamadeh tells Fox News Digital he was informed that he was one of those members of Congress and was surveilled in December 2022.

‘It sadly doesn’t surprise me,’ Hamadeh explained. ‘At the time, if you remember, I mean banks were shutting down accounts if they promoted conservative viewpoints, if they were selling ammo or guns and the banks were being pressured by the Biden administration. You had social media companies censoring political voices that they didn’t agree with. So it shows you the depths that the federal government, how much sway they have, not just within the bureaucracy of the government, but also with private organizations and private actors as well.‘

Hamadeh called the timing of his surveillance ‘interesting’ because ‘during the time period that I was challenging the results of my election in 2022 when I was running for attorney general, where that race was decided by 280 votes out of 2.5 million.’

Hamadeh continued, ‘You know, this is a very legitimate challenge. This is something that both sides of the aisle have done routinely. So you don’t know if that was a factor. And I would assume so, because at the time it was such a hostile environment with President Biden when he was in power. I mean, my God, they were calling MAGA fascists. They were calling us threats to democracy constantly.’

Hamadeh also called it ‘peculiar’ that he is a former U.S. Army Reserve intelligence officer with top secret clearance who traveled overseas both on deployment and in his personal capacity. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in June it would be ending the Quiet Skies program, which left some Americans subject to additional screenings at airport security.

The department says the agency was overly politicized to either benefit or hurt specific people and ran a bill of roughly $200 million annually. According to DHS, the program kept a watchlist as well as a list of people exempted. The department says Quiet Skies has not prevented any terrorist attacks but will continue to use other methods to assure safe air travel.

‘It is clear that the Quiet Skies program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration — weaponized against its political foes and exploited to benefit their well-heeled friends. I am calling for a Congressional investigation to unearth further corruption at the expense of the American people and the undermining of US national security,’ DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

The TSA’s ‘Quiet Skies’ program was established in 2010 to identify passengers for enhanced screening on some domestic and outbound international flights.

Paul said earlier this year that he received records confirming that federal air marshals surveilled now-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard during domestic flights last year, ‘reporting back information related to her appearance and even how many electronics she was observed using.’ 

‘I’m glad to see that the Senate, Senator Rand Paul got to the bottom of it and also that Department of Homeland Security has now effectively terminated the Quiet Skies program as well,’ Hamadeh told Fox News Digital. 

‘Also, it’s odd that there’s only three Republican members of Congress that were targeted. I mean, I’m assuming, there’s Democrats who have a lot of interesting travel here that I serve with as well. I’m sure that there are things that would flag them. So it makes you question what the Biden administration, who they were focusing on, who they were targeting specifically. I mean look at Tulsi Gabbard. I mean what? What a complete 180 for now to have her be running the intelligence agencies as the director of national intelligence. And it goes to show you what we were fighting.’

In a press release earlier this week, Paul commended Noem for ending the program but said the work is ‘not done.’

‘We must make sure that this program does not come back under another name. Every official who directed or approved surveillance of Americans for protected speech must be removed from office. Full transparency must become the rule rather than requiring a year of investigation,’ Paul said. ‘The result will be a process that respects the Constitution, ends real life shadow bans against Americans and gives all of us the assurance that our government is focused on protecting us, not on chasing political ghosts.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s office for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Cameron Arcand contributed to this report

The federal government entered its third day of a shutdown without a clear off-ramp in sight as the Senate gears up to once again vote on a short-term funding extension Friday.

Lawmakers will again vote on the GOP’s continuing resolution (CR) and congressional Democrats’ counter-proposal on Friday. There’s been little movement on Capitol Hill since the last failed vote, given that some either left Washington, D.C., or did not come to the Hill, in observance of Yom Kippur.

In fact, the Senate floor was open for less than three hours on Thursday, with only a handful of lawmakers giving remarks to a mostly empty chamber.

Republicans hope that more Senate Democrats will peel off and vote for their bill, but it’s unlikely. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and most of his caucus are firmly rooted in their position that expiring Obamacare tax credits must be dealt with now.

And Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he isn’t planning on keeping lawmakers in town over the weekend if the House GOP’s bill fails for a fourth time. Still, bipartisan talks are happening among the rank-and-file members to find some way to reopen the government.

‘I’m glad that people are talking,’ Thune said. ‘I think there are a lot of Democrats who want out of this, you know, grapple that Schumer is running now, so I’m hoping that perhaps that will lead somewhere. But it all starts with what I’ve said before, reopen the government, and I think that’s what we got to have … happen first.’

There are some ideas being tossed back and forth among Senate Republicans and Democrats, like agreeing to work on the subsidies until Nov. 21 under the GOP plan, or compromising on a shorter CR that lasts until Nov. 1 to coincide with the beginning of open-enrollment for Obamacare.

‘We’re not asking for a full repair of a broken system,’ Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said. ‘We understand how badly the healthcare system is working, but it’s going to be so much worse if the Republicans continue on this path of cutting healthcare for millions of Americans.’

Thune threw cold water on the latter idea.

‘Well, and what’s the House going to come back and vote on, a one-month as opposed to seven weeks? I mean, think about this right now. We’re really kind of quibbling over pretty, pretty small stuff,’ he said.

Schumer made clear over the last several days that he wants bipartisan negotiations to craft a funding extension with Democratic and Republican input, but the GOP argues that their bill, which is backed by President Donald Trump, would unlock future bipartisan negotiations on spending bills.

But Republicans argue that his insistence on negotiating is more about political optics than actually finding a path out of the shutdown.

‘This Democrat shutdown is nothing but a cynical political shutdown, with Senator Schumer kowtowing to his radical left-wing extremists,’ Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said on the Senate floor. ‘He’s desperately recoiling, fighting to stave off a primary and to save his party from the piranhas in their own midst.’

And while talks at the lower level are ongoing, some contend that ultimately it will be Trump’s decision on what happens next.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said on the Senate floor, ‘Unfortunately, right now, our Republican colleagues are not working with us to find a bipartisan agreement to prevent the government shutdown and address the healthcare crisis.’

‘We know that even when they float ideas, which we surely do appreciate, in the end, the president appears to make the call,’ Klobuchar said. 

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is accusing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of refusing to vote to end the government shutdown in order to kowtow to his left-wing base.

Johnson told Fox News Digital in a sit-down interview that Democrats’ refusal to budge on their current position came up in an hour-long call he held with President Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon.

‘[Trump is] very bothered by that, that Chuck Schumer would do this, Democrats would do this, because we haven’t,’ the top House Republican said.

He noted that Democrats had voted on a similar measure to what Republicans are offering on 13 different occasions under former President Joe Biden.

‘And even when the Republicans were in the minority, we did the right thing to keep the government open. And we fully expected that Schumer would do that again, as he always has, but not this time,’ Johnson said.

‘This is a selfish political calculation he’s made, that he’s got to prove to the far left that he’s going to fight Trump or something. So we talked about our frustration with that.’

He said Trump appeared ‘happy’ that Republicans remain unified in their federal funding stance but was concerned about the effects of a prolonged shutdown on everyday Americans.

‘But the reason we’re happy about that is because we know we’re doing the right thing for the American people,’ Johnson said. ‘And Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are demonstrating that they are willing to inflict this pain upon the people for their own political purposes. And I think that is a tough thing for them to get over.’

He said of a meeting between congressional leaders and Trump that occurred on Monday, ‘I tried my best in the White House, and he just is in no mood to have a real discussion about these issues. So we are where we are.’

Senate Democrats have now rejected a GOP-led plan to fund federal agencies through Nov. 21 three times.

The measure is called a continuing resolution (CR) and is aimed at buying House and Senate negotiators more time to reach a deal on fiscal year (FY) 2026 federal funding priorities.

The CR would keep current federal funding levels roughly flat while adding an extra $88 million in security spending for lawmakers, the White House, and the judicial branch.

Democrats, furious at being largely sidelined in funding discussions, have signaled they would not accept any bill that does not also extend Obamacare tax subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those enhanced subsidies are due to expire at the end of this year.

But Johnson, who called the Obamacare subsidies an ‘end-of-year issue,’ argued that the bill was a simple extension of federal funding, leaving Republicans with no realistic path for concessions.

‘If it was not clean and simple, if I had loaded it up with a bunch of Republican partisan priorities, then there would be something for us to negotiate. I could take those things off and offer it again. I sent it over with nothing attached at all,’ he said.

‘It quite literally is just buying us time to finish the appropriations process, which was being done in a bipartisan manner. So I don’t have anything to give, there’s nothing I can give. And Chuck Schumer has made such outrageous counter-demands and proposals that he’s the one that has to come to his senses.’

He was referring to Democrats’ counter-proposal for a CR, which would have repealed the Medicaid reforms made in Republicans’ One Big, Beautiful Bill, while restoring funding for NPR and PBS that was cut by the Trump administration earlier this year.

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for a response but did not hear back by press time.

President Donald Trump is open to talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ‘without any preconditions,’ a White House official said, as South Korea’s unification minister warned Pyongyang’s missiles could reach the U.S. mainland.

‘President Trump in his first term held three historic summits with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un that stabilized the Korean Peninsula. U.S. policy on North Korea has not changed,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital. ‘President Trump remains open to talking with Kim Jong Un, without any preconditions.’

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young used blunt language in Berlin this week, telling reporters, ‘North Korea has become one of the three countries capable of attacking the U.S. mainland,’ according to the Yonhap News Agency. ‘What needs to be acknowledged should be acknowledged rationally.’

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Chung’s claim.

Yonhap also reported that Chung said Pyongyang’s ‘strategic position is different’ than in 2018, when Trump and Kim held their first summit in Singapore. 

‘Acknowledging this reality should be the starting point’ in dealing with the regime, Chung told reporters.

But experts say North Korea has long held the capability to reach the U.S. mainland with intercontinental ballistic missiles. 

‘They’ve tested ICBMs for a long time,’ said Bob Peters, senior research fellow for strategic deterrence at the Heritage Foundation.

‘The question, then, for a long time, is, do they have a warhead that can go underneath a nose cone on an ICBM that goes by definition, exo atmospheric, comes down and then hits a target with some semblance of accuracy and then detonate and produce a nuclear yield,’ Peters added. ‘That’s been the real question — do they have that capability? That’s not what it sounded like the South Korean minister said.’

Meanwhile, Kim has said dialogue with the U.S. is possible, but on his terms. 

‘If the United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearizing us and accepts reality, and wants genuine peaceful coexistence, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States,’ state media quoted Kim as saying.

A meeting with Kim would make Trump’s fourth sit-down with the dictator, at a time when his nation has once again grown increasingly hostile to U.S. interests. 

In July, the White House said Trump ‘remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea.’ But North Korea asserted it would not meet the U.S. president if he was going to demand denuclearization. 

On Monday, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong told the United Nations General Assembly that his country will never give up its nuclear program, Reuters reported.

Trump is scheduled to travel to Asia later this month for an economic leaders’ summit with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. A senior U.S. official said no Demilitarized Zone meeting with Kim is currently on the agenda.

Reports have suggested Trump may meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Oct. 30-Nov. 1, though plans are still being finalized. 

In a call last month, Xi invited Trump and first lady Melania Trump to visit China. Trump returned the invitation. 

The same official said progress on nuclear talks depends on China. 

‘The first thing that would need to happen is for the Chinese to acknowledge and be more transparent about its own programs,’ the official said.

U.S. estimates put China’s nuclear arsenal at about 600 warheads in 2024, with projections of 1,000 by 2030. North Korea is believed to possess roughly 50 warheads, with enough fissile material for up to 90.

Pyongyang last year declared an ‘irreversible hegemonic position’ after test-firing its Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile, which North Korea has claimed can strike the American mainland.

Trump is strengthening deterrence even as he keeps the option of ‘talks without preconditions’ open.

Bipartisan talks on reopening the government began to materialize less than a day into the shutdown, with Republicans and Democrats trying to find a middle ground on expiring Obamacare tax credits.

The federal government entered its first full day of a shutdown on Wednesday, and so far neither side of the aisle is willing to buckle as the hours ticked by.

Still, in the middle of Senate Republicans’ third attempt to pass the House GOP’s short-term funding extension, a group of nearly a dozen senators huddled on the floor in the first public display of negotiations so far.

‘There are glimmers of hope, and I think they’re bipartisan,’ said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who was in the huddle.

The conversations on the floor came as Republicans demanded that Democrats yield and provide the votes to reopen the government, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., doubled down on his position that Democrats wouldn’t budge without ‘serious’ movement on Obamacare premium subsidies.

‘Donald Trump and Republicans have barreled us into a shutdown because they refuse to protect Americans’ healthcare,’ Schumer said. ‘It’s clear that the way out of this shutdown is to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to address the looming healthcare crisis that faces tens of millions of American families.’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., appears willing to slowly chip away at Senate Democrats through a de facto war of attrition and plans to bring House Republicans’ bill to the floor for a vote again and again.

The Senate will be out on Thursday to observe Yom Kippur but is expected to return Friday and possibly vote into the weekend on the continuing resolution (CR) that would reopen the government until Nov. 21 to give lawmakers more time to finish work on the dozen spending bills needed to fund the government.

Thune told Fox News Digital that he expected to talk to Schumer ‘in the next day or two.’

‘He’s indicated that he’s interested in doing that,’ Thune said. ‘I’m not sure what we’ll achieve by that, but I think there are, I mean, things seem to be moving on their side. We just keep telling them to ‘give us — open up the government, and we’ll get on with regular business.’’

Thune and Senate Republicans have argued that Senate Democrats’ rejection of the GOP’s CR is hypocritical, given that when former President Joe Biden was in office, Schumer and his caucus routinely voted for ‘clean’ extensions — like the GOP’s current proposal.

But the issue for Democrats was multifaceted. 

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., was among the many lawmakers holding a confab on the Senate floor, and while he didn’t divulge full details of the private talks, he said a major issue for him was about ensuring that a ‘deal is a deal.’

‘Anything we agree to, because it’s not a clean CR if the president will tear it up tomorrow,’ he said. ‘In the past, we voted for clean CRs, but the president has shown that he’ll take the money back.’

Among the options tossed around in the huddle were a 10-day funding extension once floated by Schumer, which he quickly shot down earlier this week, or passing the Republican plan to actually give lawmakers time to negotiate a solution to the expiring tax credits.

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said there were no high-level discussions quite yet, but that any path forward had to be ‘enforceable.’

‘The bottom line here is that I sense real concern among my Republican colleagues about what happens to the people they represent if we go off the cliff on the Affordable Care Act,’ he said, referring to Obamacare.

And Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who helped facilitate the conversation, said it’d be ‘great’ if lawmakers were able to get something figured out before the Nov. 21 deadline in the GOP’s bill, but that he and other Republicans were still pushing Democrats to support their legislation.

‘It’s not like there’s anything that they should be objecting to with regard to what’s in the existing bill,’ he said. ‘This is their hostage, and we’re just telling them, ‘Look, we’ve got support on the other side to fix the issues that you have a concern about, but it’s going to take time to negotiate those through.”